doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com cleaning vintage bores

Yea, choke tubes don't ordinarily fit perfectly at the junction of the original bore and the threads. Thers's usually a bit of a gap there, and it "snags" fouling, particularly plastic, as it passes by.

Hi Chief,
I understand about the jump across the entry into the tube but screw-in tubes build up plastic in the choke area, as well. Far more than the same area in fixed chokes. Maybe because the stainless material is not polished as finely as the regular barrel steel. The better Briley screw-ins appear to be very highly polished, though.

Jim I see guys at the club pulling their bOre snakes through their barrels....I just shake my head.

I've had shooters at my club tell me they have been shooting,usually a pistol or revolver, for several years and have never cleaned the gun. Furthermore they don't know how to even field strip the gun for cleaning. Some of the newer pistols,Glocks for example, are very forgiving of this type of abuse and will run with no maintenance for quite some time. I've bought guns from people inexpensively who claimed they didn't work. More than once all the gun needed was a good cleaning to put it back into operation.
Jim

My upbringing just doesn't let me put a gun away that is not clean and wiped down. I find a bore brush, with a solvent wet patch wrapped around it, scrubbed up through the chamber to the muzzle pretty much cleans it on the first pass and certainly within the third. Then the second cleaning rod with a proper sized jag (such as used in muzzleloading rifles) with a couple patches finishes up both barrels and adds a light coat of CLP. I am usually done in about 5 minutes per gun unless it is the one I have with screwin chokes. I won't get another set of those.

I'm with you.
I can't understand why one would own a nice gun and not look after it by appropriately cleaning and lubricating it before and after use. It really needn't take long to do properly.
RG

i suppose many of you guys that suggest cleaning your guns after every use have children that are emancipated. cleaning my guns are at the bottom of my priority. my benelli waterfowler gets cleaned once a year and that includes after hunts on saltwater. do you remember what it's like to have young children. i can't wait for my boy to grow old enough so he can help with the cleaning. the question is does it really hurt the bores to have some powder residue sit for a few months. the guns are stowed in a safe with a hydroscopic can.

If the bores are chromed, stored in a warmer, dry environment, and you're not too worried about preserving the guns inside and out really well in the long term (years and decades +) then a little powder residue and some sweaty finger marks oughtn't hurt.
On this board I guess you'll tend to get answers from people whose guns are often quite old or valuable, and don't have chromed bores etc; a little preventative maintenance goes a long way on them.

I do have young children so my time is at a premium too, but none of my guns have chromed bores; some are quite old and have already suffered some rusting. My strongroom gets cold which can allow condensation to form on them, so they all get cleaned after use as a matter of course.
RG

I honestly cannot believe some of the replies here.
You work hard to earn the disposable income to allow you to buy a gun or you are fortunate to inherit an heirloom or have a friend who is good enough to get you started.You turn round and say " I never clean my gun" "I have children that I want to spend every spare minute with". Well go ahead, never clean your gun, never change your underwear, never shave, never wash, never go to work, never go to sleep, spend every waking hour with your children, but teach them how to hunt, to clean a gun, and to homeload, respect your fellow man and the wildlife, the balance of nature.It takes a very few minutes to push a cleaning rod through your bores, lubricate the important wear and pivot points, probably less time than it takes to fill your fuel tank and pay the cashier. So just do it.
Until someone proves to me that I can bag more game, break more clays and increase the value of my gun by neglecting it, I will take the time to clean mine, thank you.

I must admit, I am with salopian. Moneys too hard to come by for me not to treat my purchases with care and respect. When I grew up, guns were very hard to come by in my house (not much disposable income). I was taught to clean a gun not just after a hard day of hunting, but even to wipe thouroughly after you get them out and look them over. Just turned into a habit and I have passed that on to all of my children. Really only had 2 guns of my own (Montgomery Wards .410 pump, and Remington ss .22 - added a Remington 11-48 12b when I was 12) Hunted for 30 years with these guns and they are still in the same condition as when I got them.

I just ass-u-med that everyone gave theirs the same treatment. Until this thread, I never really gave it a second thought.